Tag: Larry Gelbart

  • M*A*S*H’s Unexpected Season 3 Death Received A Complaint From An Unhappy Parent

    M*A*S*H’s Unexpected Season 3 Death Received A Complaint From An Unhappy Parent

    The classic CBS sitcom “M*A*S*H” earned a reputation early on for not shying away from the harsh realities of war. In most cases, the series’ skillful writers, led by Larry Gelbart, gracefully integrated these jarring moments into the show’s laugh-heavy fabric. But when Gelbart and company killed off the well-liked Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake (McLean…

  • The Transitional M*A*S*H Episode That Had Network Executives Steaming

    The Transitional M*A*S*H Episode That Had Network Executives Steaming

    It’s easy to take the television version of “M*A*S*H” for granted. Based on Robert Altman’s raucous New Hollywood comedy, the series gracefully sanded down the film’s problematic edges and presented a more bracingly humanistic view of combat medical personnel struggling to maintain their sanity while watching one young man after another die on their operating…

  • The One Aspect Of M*A*S*H That Writer Larry Gelbart Felt ‘Cheapened’ The Show

    The One Aspect Of M*A*S*H That Writer Larry Gelbart Felt ‘Cheapened’ The Show

    Robert Altman’s “M*A*S*H” is an uproariously funny anti-war masterpiece on par with the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup.” Set at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War in 1951, but released to theaters in 1970, Altman’s movie was unmistakably commenting on the ongoing meat grinder that was the Vietnam War. One second you’re howling…